All five Sounds were present and drew straws to determine their playing order. The clash started at 12:12 AM. The night was blessed with lightning and thunder showers – how apropos! There were approximately 200 people in attendance and yours truly was the host. The audio was by Step-A-Choice with Extacy Sounds providing early juggling.

Round One: No Eliminations

Hallow Point – 12:12 AM: Hollow Point Sound was up first! Representing was MC Hype Ras and DJ Dino – both of whom were experiencing their first ‘official’ clash together. This round was a ‘no elimination’ round and Hype Ras wasted no time – once he got the mic from Dino, he started to diss Sounds and those around him left, right and center. The crowd didn’t buy into his ‘Hype’ and Hallow Point was booed several times during their set.

King Judah – 12:26 AM: King Judah were confident right out of the gate, but, just like the round before them, they too were booed only five minutes into their set. These boos seemed to throw off their young MC who didn’t have a verbal response ready. The crowd was heckling King Judah for playing 45’s, they wanted to hear dubs – even though the rules clearly stated that the Sounds could play either/or.

Klymaxx – 12:40 AM: Klymaxx was off to a good start – clear speeches followed by a few forwards. Their set was the best thus far, but, despite their confidence and good pacing, they too got booed

VIP – 12:52 AM: VIP encountered audio problems at the start of their set, once things got ironed out, they took off and we saw and heard a good clear MC who was in sync with his DJ. VIP called names, but, specifically went after Hallow Point dropping some Mavado and Bounty Killer in the process. And yes, they got some boos as well.

Cumtraxx – 1:05 AM: Cumtraxx played next – they were booed from start to finish. I believe Cumtraxx shot themselves in the foot – their MC decided to come behind me and flip up my locks during my introduction of their Sound when I stated, “oh what a shame, don’t judge a Sound by their name”. That’s all it took for the Cumtraxx mics man to break one of the rules of Sound clash – no physical contact. Take a listen to the audio and judge for yourself.

This was a critical error for Cumtraxx, who tried to offset what had just happened, but, ended up coming back with what seemed like a bunch of screaming and yelling abd distortion, hence the boos from the crowd. It was now time to move on the round two with voting to follow.

Round Two: No Eliminations – One Sound Advances To Round Four

Hallow Point – Round Two: They wasted a bunch of time due to equipment problems. Kirk from Step-A-Choice noted to me that Hallow Point was using Virtual DJ – with their headphone output coming out of their computer in order to play their audio which resulted in “inferior quality sound”. By now, their cables and wires were acting up and it seemed like their main mixer had blown a fuse. Once things were fixed, Hallow Point continued their set and their dubs started to sound better and the vibes in the dance hall improved. Hallow Point experienced their first forwards in Sound clash during this round.

King Judah – Round Two: King Judah’s problem was failing to draw a crowd that followed them to Rising Stars that night. The crowd was tough on Judah, they played okay in the second Round, even bringing some customized dubs designed to kill VIP Sound, but the crowd didn’t seem to be feeling the King Judah vibes on this night. I big them up for a cool speech where the called Cumtraxx “battybwoys” because “dem a try feel up Ron Nelson lox” LOL. Klymaxx – Klymaxx played another very solid second Round, concentrating on killing Cumtraxx and VIP. I remember them getting some forwards from a Spragga Benz and a Busy Signal. More specifically, Klymaxx made an excellent point about Cumtraxx’s hypocrisy. The Cumtraxx (baldhead) MC had spent much of his last Round insulting anything that was Rasta, aiming most of his insults at the Hallow Point’s Rasta selector. Klymaxx pointed out to the audience that the Cumtraxx MC’s tactics made no sense because not only was he was insulting every Rasta in the crowd, but more specifically, his own selector playing thie music next to him, who was also a Ras!

VIP – 2:03 – VIP, to some degree, lost the clash in this Round because they played back “Lend Back Mi Mercy” by Merciless. For the rest of the night, the difficult crowd would strip them of any respect because they had made this crucial error and had to be “punished” for it. Because of the playback, the rest of their Round was inconsequential.

Cumtraxx – 217 pm – Cumtraxx started this Round with a 5 minute delay due to technical problems (dunno who to blame for this). This is when their hype MC started his suspicion that his sound was being sabotaged. He’d flip up about it later. There was no big speech in this Round, and Cumtraxx seemed to focus specifically on taking out VIP. I honestly don’t remember much about this Round, so the Audio, when it comes out, will have to speak here.

After the conclusion of Round 2, the audience was polled, with the sound with the most votes getting a “buy” into the fourth Round. Every Sound would play again in Round 3, but they would be drawing “letters” A, B, C and D – then it would be A vs B, and C vs D. The voting results are as follows:

Hallow Point got their best forwards in this Round, and it was clear that the momentum in the clash had shifted to favor them. Klymaxx played a good Round, and Cumtraxx was again distracted by audio problems starting their set, followed by a stare down between them and the Steppa Choice Sound. Again, I need to hear the Audio to remember what happened in this Round, I just know that five minutes seemed really short – over before we all know it. When the Round was done and the voting complete, the crowd chose to advance Hallow Point and Klymaxx to the finals, giving the exit to Cumtraxx.

Hallow Point Vs Klymaxx – After a quick five minutes per sound, it was time for a best out of five tune-fi-tune. The voting was quick and accurate, with some help form some well-cut Dennis Brown and Ken Boothe dubs, the winner of the clash was Hallow Point, winning 3 out of the 5 of the tune-fi-tune showdown. Congratulations to all the sounds, but special congratulations to Hallow Point, taking out 4 sounds in winning their first ever clash. This clash featured young sounds, but for all the sounds who lost, don’t feel too bad – Hallow Point has a selector who has experience, partnering in recent years with big sounds such as Blackat and Nico Bam Bam. This is not to take anything away from Hollow Point, their performance was nothing short of inspirational, and I can hardly wait to hear more from this new Scarborough Sound.

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My name is Ron Nelson. I am a reggae addict - so this is my way of sharing this love with you. I am a DJ, educator, promoter, and a visionary. I believe in making dreams come true. This is my baby - I'm dedicated to this. Welcome to ReggaeMania.com - we hope you love the website. Follow me on Instagram: djronnelson